Australia: Women might think you are small if you speed

Here in Australia, the New South Wales (NSW) Road & Traffic Authority (RTA) have been showing TV advertisements (or maybe they’re more like public service announcements) that show young male drivers speeding around town while the females along the roadside wiggle their pinkies in the air.

For those who don’t know, the pinkie wiggle is a gesture that symbolizes a small penis.

As stupid and sexist as the ads sound, they sure are making quite an impact on the intended male demographic. About 60% of males who have seen the advertisement said that they have curbed their wild driving habits.

From the BBC:

The NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) said it introduced the campaign because the shock tactics of previous adverts, showing disturbing images of death and injury in road crashes, had not worked.

The new ads included one young driver revving his engine and rushing through traffic lights in front of two young women and another racing past a female pedestrian.

After both incidents the women wave their little fingers in slow motion with knowing glances.

Speeding is a factor in about 40% of road deaths in NSW each year, according to RTA figures.

I’ve only been living in Melbourne for a couple of months but already I can see the need for such an advertisement. People here just love to show off in their cars — and that means that speeding is one way of doing so. Unfortunately for them, nobody has told them that they look incredibly stupid speeding down the road in a Ford or a Holden. Buy a supercar and your speed and noise might be justified.